APBA JOURNAL ARCHIVE: ISSUE 9, JANUARY 2014 This issue of the APBA Journal Archive is provided courtesy of the APBA Journal for your personal enjoyment. If you enjoy this material and want more, you can get the complete digital APBA Journal collection—all 363 issues and 8686 pages—for $100 either by searching ebay for “APBA Journal” or by dropping me an email at [email protected]. Other digital offerings include the APBA Journal Reference Packs (an archive of the very best articles to appear in the Journal) and the Complete APBA Innings (a competing publication of the late 60s/early 70s). These two offerings are available for $40 each on ebay or by contacting me directly. Happy reading! Bob Tassinari The APBA Journal Legal Notices: The APBA Journal Archive is Copyright 1967-2013 Robert Tassinari. All rights reserved. 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The term “APBA” is property of the APBA Game Company, Alpharetta, GA, and is used with permission. .t<- >.. ~ 0 The APBA JOURNAL - Devoted exclusively to the APBA fan, with permission of the APBA Game Company, Lancaster, Pennsylvania ~- ~•I• Makers of World Famous APBA Professional Sports simulation games. ~e $2.00 JANUARY 1989 National League Rookie Report Who's Hot and Who's Not Among Newly APBA Carded Players by Eric Naftaly annually give us their assessments of the Nevertheless, bearing in mind that (as Bill game company's first-year carded players James demonstrated in his Baseball Ab­ he general opinion in the national -appears to concur. stract a couple of years back) a rookie crop's press last season was that the With a few notable exceptions, where the first-year performance is not a good predictor 1988 major league rookie crop last couple of seasons' players were being of ultimate career accomplishment, we pres­ T failed to measure up to the stan­ compared to Harmon Killebrew, Tony Perez, ent the 1989 rookie report: the National dards of past years. Joe Torre and Jerry Koosman, this year's League this month and the American in next For the most part, our APBA Journal Scout­ group inspired comparisons with Bruce month's issue. ing Bureau - nearly 100 correspondents Bochte, Wayne Krenchicki, Roger Freed and As our subscribers from past years are who closely follow major league teams and Jack Lazorko. prob~bly aware, we've pushed our deadline a month earlier for these reports in an at­ tempt to make them more timely. Since some of our usual reference sources for players' ages, roster status and so forth haven't been published yet, we may report that a few players are on clubs' 40-man winter rosters when in fact they have been outrighted to the minors since then; also, the players' ages below (theoretically, it's the age as of January 1, 1989) may be off by a JIPB.Pl Jouma{ few months. Please bear with us. Under each team, first­ Pitcfiing Contest !Jfonor !JW{{ year nonpitchers are listed first, in alphabeti­ 1988 cal order, followed by first-year pitchers. SttUlrt :foster o/a!paraiso, Ituf. Atlanta Braves (jreg Jofr.nson 'Wasli.ington, f}).C. Nick Byrd, Jim Riegert, Frank 1-fe.nry (joUfman Merion, Pa. Scozzarl Stan !Jlarmen (jartfiers6urg, Mi. Terry Blocker - Our observers agree that Jay !Moore Cliagri.n :Jaffs, Oli.io Blocker, a 29-year old lefty centerfielder out of the Mets' organization, isn't a good !MarK. 'BeaK_as 5tu6urn, Ituf. enough hitter to hold a regular major league Steven :Jucfts Cli.icago, J{L job for long. Nick describes him as "mar­ Paul !Mc'Evoy 'Braintree, Mass. ginal", Jim predicts he won't make the club this spring, Randy Reynolds calls him a .%6erto~ Miami, :f{a. "nonprospect" better suited for double-A ball, 'Wooay S tutfenmuntf Pasatfena, Calif. and Frank "can't see him as other than a plug to fill a hole for a year while the Braves ~ fJim 'Iromky 'FiK..fiilrt, I tuf. rebuild." 1@y'Brrufy Jose Alvarez - This righthanded long re­ !Mi~ Proffett liever is durable - Nick says it seemed as though he pitched or warmed up every day­ and he certainly is persistent -he last pitched (briefly) for the major league Braves in 1982. (Rookies; continued on p. 4) APBA JOURNAL Fielding Survey Unreliable up 217 times over 162 games. Of that total, a Ball or Strike should result 73 times while in the remaining 144 Just finished games through May 2 in both ALand NL for 1926. "The CMBA System" (sounds like the old times something else happens. And that something else is either a hit or an error or both over half the time with an shortstop for the Boston Braves) works well and now that average fielding team and it's even more with a poor I'm used to it, goes fairly smoothly. Two questions: Has anyone done a large sampling of hits taken away by good fielding team. That, by the way, is one of the contributing factors to the Master Game generally producing more pitchers per game? In my small sampling (30 games or so) it's between five and six a game. And has anybody offense than the Basic Game. With regard to the AJ Scouting Bureau's Re/ding Sur­ worked out a realistic pitcher fatigue system to work with CMBA? The SAMBO system works well for me with vey.. I came up with the idea for having a Fielding and Rookie survey in the AJ after hearing APBA fans say regular Master play but with no upgrading allowed in when the cards came out that"APBA 's really blown it with CMBA the downgrading for fatigue means the pitcher nearly runs out of gas all at once, depending on his this guy• or words to that effect. I thought it would be possible to form a collection of APBA fans from Major percentage of complete games. Any info or thoughts? By now you know that the Mets Innings pitched wasn't League franchise areas who, as a result of seeing quite induded in the November issue. Also, you state in the a few games either in person or on local TV and having read extensive coverage of their team in the local news­ answer to Williams' letter that "Rare plays just ain't that rare". It seems to me that most rare play numbers occur papers, could provide us with some additional informa­ tion on the players. Even though it wouldn~ be "profes­ with none on base, so most 36-41 's become balls or strikes unless you have some method of randomizing for sional" information, I was confident that overall the re­ this. Eh? sults would be pretty good and that it would be interest­ One man's opinion but the the Annual Fielding Survey, ing and informative to others who didn~ have the same aside from involving some very earnest fans, is mostly access. I used myself as an example. Because 1have an opportunity to see every Boston game, I'm probably stnVI~g afterw1nd and even unreliable, insofar as it goes; 11 be1ng extremely subjective and with, often, personal '!"'re of an •expert" on the Red Sox than someone living bias, favorable or otherwise, coming into play. It reminds m Montana. Sure, I've got prejudices like everyone else me of many call-in talk shows on radio where the strong and I will miss on some but I try to be objective and it seems op1mons, after careful scrutiny by the host, show the that's the way it is with most of those who help out. caller to have incomplete data for his grandiose and It must be added, though, that when it comes to evaluat­ mostly negative opinion. ing baseball players . I've noticed that snobbery is often rampant ... "they are hopelessly prejudiced while /,on the For instance, I score 50 to 60 Mets games from my box seat behind third base each season for Project other hand, am very objective. • Scoresheet. I don't have a broadcaster or telecaster to In the beginning I tried to get draft leaguers involved tell me how great a throw or wonderful a play was or because they seem to pay the closest attention to the indeed how unfortunate someone looked striking out for current players. After that I opened it up to all fans so the third time or if a manager's neglect in removing the everyone can chip in with his or her views. pitcher was stupid or canny. I can see for myself and 1 Overall,/ think it has been successful and fun, although it's been difficult to find enough people to report on some hope with balanced acumen, try to evaluate even as I root for my guys. It isn't always easy but I work at it. For the of the teams. I wish this weren't so and that more would get involved since that reduces the chance that one fan's most part, these are professional men doing professional work damn well and as parity has evened out the talent views can dominate a team report. If 4 or 5 APBA fans at least in the NL, the games are better for it. ' have the same view of a player, I'm pretty confident that As I stumble off my soap-box, I should (having said the they've got in right.